Behind the Design of the MST

Introduction:

Hello everybody. My name is Neil and I was a bit nervous to make this blog. As many of you know when you create anything and put it out into the world there is a sense of vulnerability that always comes with it. You think how will this be accepted? Will people like it? Will anyone besides my Mom buy one? The hard questions I have to reflect on when posting anything.

For some background information on myself, I am a creative based in Tennessee. I have designed artwork for local businesses, logos for small brands, and art for local comic book stores. I also run a Youtube channel called “Wasted Paper” where I review stationeary products with a focus mainly on fountain pens. During covid, like many people, I found myself home a lot more with time to think and reflect on my life. I saw a movie on Netflix called “Tick Tick Boom” in 2021 that influenced me heavily.

I highly recommend everyone watch that movie if you're creative! It helped me realize I had a spark that was being wasted. It took time but a few weeks after watching that movie and thinking about it religiously, even going back and watching it again multiple times I said to my wife, then girlfriend, I am going to start taking art classes online.

She gave me a simple “Okay” and a smile and that was all I needed. From that moment on I studied, read, researched, and worked harder than I had in my entire life. I was working at a retail store as a manager. I had been there for nearly 10 years at the time and had never even thought about doing art seriously. Fast forward years, I am still practicing and learning new things every day! If you told me a single movie would have inspired me enough to change my entire life trajectory I would never have believed you yet here we are. Now I have been given the amazing opportunity to design a fountain pen with brands that are bigger than me in every way! Life can surprise you when you work hard.

The Beginning Approach and Setting a Goal:

In the beginning when Kev(Endless Pens owner) and I first started talking about this it seemed almost surreal. I had never once thought about designing a fountain pen, I was simply an enjoyer and admirer. He later told me Hiren(Magna Carta owner) was on board to work with Endless Pens to make it happen. It all became real in an instant. I knew I had to say yes because this opportunity almost never happens. That night I put in a request for time off at my everyday job and I grabbed my ipad, apple pencil, and began to lay out my goals for this project.

This would be an Endless Pen’s exclusive model but I also know the love for HATCH I had as well as many others so my focus was to incorporate that. What did I love about HATCH? HATCH enables so many people to be creative, to pursue their ideas that otherwise they couldn’t. Nothing enables people like this. I wanted to replicate that feeling and open up more opportunities for people with my design of this pen. Quickly my goal became “Make a pen that people wanted to use for HATCH”. Effectively create a canvas for others to put their mark on.

Goal in mind, for my next step I went to Magna Carta’s website and looked at all the models they have released. This helped me get an idea of what they do that I was unfamiliar with. I found 2 models that stood out to me. The Imperial and the Traditions. I had never seen anyone talk about these or really any promotion at all but they both had characteristics I wanted to use that would be amazing for HATCH projects. The Traditions had a pretty modern aesthetic compared to the rest of their line, which was a detail I personally wanted to include, and the metal accents from both models could open the door for what could be customized by creatives on a HATCH release. So many things could be done with a finial medallion and metal bands on the pen.

Next I wanted to see what other people love about Magna Carta pens. Nearly 100% of the reviews praised Magna Carta for the Mag 600 and the fine flex nib. I would be crazy to not incorporate this. We were going with the Fine Flex nib and the Mag 600 grip.

Lastly I wanted something that pens in the Magna Carta catalog hadn’t done. I needed my niche. I noticed 2 things across the line of their pens. They don’t post as deep as I prefer and they’re all fairly bigger pens. I like a deep post when the pen cap touches between my thumb and pointer finger when posted.

Including a reference image here of my favorite posting pen.

And if my pen is a difference size in a line up it would stand out. I also like something that's easy to throw into a pen loop on a notebook or in a binder. These became my subgoals as these were important features to me and would help set my pen apart from anything MC has done thus far.

First Draft:

When it comes to drawing a concept up I try to keep it loose and leave the option for flexibility open as it’s always a draft until it’s done. A few more details I added were a step down from the cap to the body as that’s a really high quality detail people notice right away when viewing a pen, I created an original clip incorporating MC into it to pay homage to their logo, and I wanted to see if the top finial could be debossed instead of embossed for a unique twist. After months of back and forth and testing these were the conclusions for a few of the details that were changed.

The clip was rejected fairly early on as that would take a lot of time and probably wasn’t very practical with my hook at the end. I included the picture still because I liked how it looked, a shameless little plug if you will.

The step down was tested a few times, I actually have one of the samples here.

It looked really nice but no matter how we did it it wouldn’t allow the pen to post as deep as I wanted so we changed the cap to a more traditional cap design that keeps the form more streamlined.

Machining wise Hiren let me know we could have more options when it came to customising if we embossed the top finial logo. More options made sense to me so we went with that.

The cap band was easy. I took their normal Magna Carta band and added some small changes. Normally the back of it is blank and I wanted to utilize that space. History is important to me so I had Hiren add “Est. 2014” to the back and a line in the center to guide your eye around. This is the year Magna Carta was founded and it made the band feel more full. Plus I got to incorporate their heritage which was a cherry on top.

      The band on the body took quite a bit of work though. I couldn’t come up with a standard look for the general release colorways. I felt all of them clashed with the aesthetic of the pen and it simply didn't look right.

(Sorry Hiren for having you make so many samples) 

I loved the look of the metal accent on the body once the cap was off. Almost no pens do this and I didn't want to give that up so to reconcile this after multiple tests I settled on the 2 rings you see on the official release. I still got the metal accent where I wanted and this more simplified look allowed for a cleaner aesthetic overall.

I wanted to share these changes with you from my original draft so you could see why setting my goals in the beginning was so important. “Make a pen that people wanted to use for HATCH.”, have it post how I like, and keep the size down. Having these in mind made making changes so much easier along the way.

The Final Steps:

Once the model design was done I was anxious, I was nervous but I was so glad that the hardest part was done because now we’re at the final steps. I had to create the first colorways and name the model.

From a consistency perspective I looked at the MAG 600 name. It’s simple and effective. I originally called this in the drafting phase the Mag 600ST. That didn’t fit the simplified style I prefer but I wanted to still retain a similar feel. Every time I talked about this pen to Kev and Hiren I always said M.S.T. It was faster and easier to say. I realized why wouldn’t I just name it that the whole time. It was my aha moment… So the middle section was dropped and it was named the MST. What’s extremely fun for me is hidden meanings and easter eggs in design. I believe people can figure out what MST stands for fairly easily but it’s a double entendre. There is a hidden reference here to something completely different in this acronym. It has to do with something from my personal past. I highly doubt anyone could ever guess what it is. In fact, I will do something special for the 1st person to guess the hidden meaning. Good luck.

Now for the first colorways, acknowledgment is extremely important to me. I wouldn’t be able to do anything I have done without the help, time, teachings, and knowledge people have shared with me in life. I wanted everyone involved in this project to have a colorway so they can also put their mark on the canvas I was creating. For mine I made a special HATCH collaboration colorway, Kev would make a colorway based on his love for the state Endless Pens was founded in, and we’d use a gorgeous resin Hiren made for the final one. Everyone contributed so much to this project it wouldn’t have been right for me to do every launch colorway and now, finally, here are the 3 colorways!

You have the Fire & Tide(coming soon), Cheshire, and Black Opal(coming soon) respectively.

🛍️ You can have these beautiful MST pens at $490 for the Black Opal and Fire and Tide colorways, while the Cheshire Cat is at $520. For an additional $10 you can also add a bottle of Cheshire Cat Wearingeul ink to your box!✨✨✨

That’s Not All:

Now that we’re at the end you’d think I would maybe not ask for anything crazy from here on…. but during the design of this I had come up with another big idea. The worst thing Kev could say is no and if I could handle hearing no then I should ask the question. I asked Kev if I could do a special line for HATCH and this first colorway I made of the MST would be the first launch in that line. I don’t want to spoil everything here as you all deserve some surprises so you’re only getting the bare essentials. I presented 2 more designs with this Cheshire one so he didn’t think I was too crazy when pitching this.

Long story short, this is the first pen from my ADVENTURES IN FICTION line! This line is going to be a storybook theme and not tied down to any brand or model specifically. I am going to put as much detail in each release as I can as a thank you to all of you for purchasing anything from my line. I have a separate video on all the hidden details of this first release, the Cheshire MST, you can check that out on the EP Youtube channel! If you are buying my pen and don’t want to be spoiled I would recommend you wait to watch that video until after you have your pen in hand and have tried to find all the details for yourself! Skip to the end if you want nothing spoiled for you now but I have to share at least one special detail now… Kev didn’t want to number my line in case it sells out and people want a restock and I completely understand that but I still want to symbolize the 1st pens to release in my line so what I asked for is to engrave “First Edition” on the back of the cap. Books have first printings and those tend to be coveted if the work is good so I asked Hiren and he said he could do it for this release so here is that detail!

This is just a small taste of what I am including on my releases in this line!

The First Edition Cheshire MST release will launch with only 65 pens! Any following restocks will be blank on the back of the caps so if you want the First Edition Cheshire this is the only time you can get it!

Gratitude:

Words can not express how amazing this was to do. There were lots of give and take, hours of research, months of back and forth, hard parts, and great highlights! In no way was this possible without Kev at Endless Pens and Hiren at Magna Carta. These people and brands put so much faith in me and worked with me to make this release happen. I am beyond grateful and I hope everyone out there reads this story behind my design and it inspires you to keep creating in your own ways. I hope if you purchase my Cheshire MST you can find all the hidden details and share them with your friends or other people in the community and I hope this story pushes you to continue being creative and do things better than I ever could.

Thank you Kev, Thank you Hiren, and Thank you to everyone that has supported me and helped me get to where I am now. - Neil Smith

P.S. if you watch Tick Tick Boom or you already have movies that inspire you leave some comments down below for myself and others. I am always down to talk about that movie or what inspires people. I look forward to reading your responses.

Written by Neil Smith